Third Magazine » Computers

Lenovo 3D Laptop – Polarized instead of shutter technology

The James — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 13:26:04 +0000

More computers are hitting the market with 3D capabilities. The latest offering is from Lenovo, the IdeaPad Y560d. This 3D capable laptop was revealed last week. Unlike its rivals, Toshiba, Acer and Asus, the Lenovo laptop does not make use of nVidia’s 3D graphics. Instead, the IdeaPad Y560d uses something called TriDef 3D (creative name). This technology doesn’t use shutter glasses, like the typical nVidia 3D or the new 3D TV’s. The Lenovo uses polarized glasses, similar to what is found in most American 3D theaters. Here is some info on the specs and pricing of the machine:

Lenovo’s Y560d features a 15.6-inch, high-definition 16:9 widescreen. Besides showing 3D content, the TriDef software can also convert 2D videos and photos to 3D.

The laptop also includes Lenovo technology for combining solid-state drives and hard disk drives within a notebook. Such systems use an SSD for faster boot up to improve performance of frequently used applications.

The Y560d is available with up to an Intel Core i7 processor and Advanced Micro Devices’ ATI Radeon HD5730 graphics card. The system is also available with a Blu-ray disc player, and integrated 802.11n Wi-Fi is available as an option.

The Y560d, which will ship with Windows 7, is scheduled to be available by the end of the month. The price is expected to start at $1,200.

Toshiba Dynabook TX/98MBL – Laptop With 3D Blu-Ray Playback

The James — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:20:58 +0000

HotHardware.com has a small write-up regarding the Toshiba Dynabook TX/98MBL, the first notebook computer with the capability of playing 3D Blu-Ray. It has a 15.6″ display at a resolution of 1366 X 768. The video card the machine is sporting is a GeForce GTS 350M, with 1 GB of video RAM. Standard it comes with 4 GB of RAM and a 640 GB hard drive. The laptop uses the Core i7-740QM.

It looks like a nice little 3D machine, although more powerful laptops are on their way and 3D Blu-Ray capabilities will become more and more common after the discs hit the market. It is pricey, as expected, rolling in at $2700. The downside is the resolution. For a 1080p 3D machine, the resolution isn’t quite what you’d expect. But it is a “first on the market” device, so I’m sure there are improvements on their way.

3D PC Market – Outrageous Growth Predicted

The James — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:15:26 +0000

Over at Today3D, they had a short article regarding the predicted growth of stereoscopic 3D capable PC’s over the next four years. The prediction seems pretty lofty; from $0 to $34 billion. These numbers come from Jon Peddie Research who predict an explosion of 3D PC hardware sold over the next four years rising to about 75 million units in 2014. It seems like a large number, but the PC and gamer market is often more likely to accept new technology at a much quicker pace. So it isn’t surprising that people are predicting the 3D PC market to increase at a faster rate than the 3D TV market.

All-in-one options will become more popular, since updating a computer piecemeal to 3D standards requires a new monitor, video card and glasses. The big issues will be the same that may plague 3D television; standard specifications. Will nVidia shutter glasses be compatible with all the new types of hardware that hit the market? Hopefully, manufacturers have the foresight to keep some sort of base standards. If not, this could definitely hinder the 3D industry overall.

3d PC’s have already hit the market with the ASUS G51J-3D 3-D Gaming Laptop. Pick one up and check it out. It’s pretty reasonably priced.

Apple set to make “magical” 3D displays…

"Mitch" — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:27:27 +0000

No this isn’t the normal magic of a multi-touch display. It’s a patent for a passive 3D multi-touch display with possible eye tracking. So in the next 2 to 5 years we should see some sort of device from Apple that takes advantage of 3D depth to further enrich the user experience, now that Apple is taking 3D seriously, without the need for glasses. Pretty much everyone now will start to wrap their heads around the fact that 3D iPad and iPhone type devices will be a common technology in the not so distant future.

The application states that the invention would need a number of “building blocks” for it to work, including:

A two-dimensional projector, including analog mirrors, a polygon scanner or similar device, and driver circuitry.

A 3D imager (which may be part of the 2D projector).

A projection screen having a surface function.

A display interface.

A digital signal processor.

A host central processing unit with 3D rendering capability.

NVidia GF100 – In production

The James — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:31:02 +0000

According to Newsfactor.com, Nvidia’s new GF100 video card is already in production and should be available later this quarter. Here are some interesting facts about the GF100:

-Geared toward 3D to create what Nvidia calls “3D Vision Surround”, an immersive environment for running games across three panels.

-Though the GF100 only supports two displays per chip, Nvidia expects to implement 3D Vision Surround through the company’s Nvidia SLI platform, which intelligently scales graphics performance by combining multiple graphics chips on an SLI-certified motherboard.

-First Nvidia GPU to be based on ‘Fermi’, a third-generation architecture featuring streaming multiprocessor technology.

-The GF100 will be able to implement all DirectX 11 hardware features, including DirectCompute and tessellation, which enables the creation of intimately detailed characters in films by refining large triangles into collections of smaller triangles.

-GF100 will enable the execution of a wide range of effects — including motion blur, soft shadows, transparency and depth of field — at speeds up to 20 times faster than previous-generation GPUs.